North And South, Baylor Law Chalks Up More Successes

Baylor Law School students turned in impressive performances in regional client counseling and moot court contests held at opposite ends of the country recently. The successes give Baylor a berth in the national finals of both contests later this month.

In the north, Baylor was named a regional champion in the American Bar Association's National Appellate Advocacy Competition for the fourth consecutive year. The team of Casey Cox, Nicole Mitchell and Kristen Pauls was undefeated in the Washington, D. C. Regional and will now advance to the National Finals in Chicago at the end of March.

Their brief placed second among the 36 teams in the region. Professor Larry Bates, team coach, said, "Baylor's other team of Chet Garner, Lara Pringle and Jennifer Turner lost a very close third round match and did not break into the finals, but was instrumental to our success in Washington, D.C. and will play a major role as we prepare for the finals in Chicago."

In Houston, Baylor Law School's client counseling team placed second in the American Bar Association Regional Client Counseling Competition, which attracted teams representing law schools across Texas and out of state.

Coached by Professor Patricia Wilson, Baylor was represented by Josh Cummings, Joshua Flynt, Misty Keene, Scott Rhodes, Brad Robinson, and Reagan Butts. Wilson said Flynt and Rhodes advanced to the final round of the competition and took second place. She said they have been invited to compete in the National Client Counseling Competition in Orange County, California, on March 11-12.

She said the Baylor team of Cummings and Keene also performed well in the contest, but were just a few points shy of advancing to the final round. "Robinson and Butts were primarily student coaches," she said. "They could, however, have stepped in to compete if one of the regular members had been unable to participate." Fellow law student and student coach, Joe Hoelscher, also assisted in preparing both teams for the competition. Wilson added, "All of the student coaches are working hard to prepare Flynt and Rhodes for their competition in California."

Wilson said the topic at the regional contest concerned sports and entertainment law. "The students had to address a number of issues, including contracts and torts, for clients involved in the sports or entertainment business," she said.

"The students, with little information beforehand, conduct an initial interview with a mock client. They must be prepared to address any number of legal and nonlegal issues that the clients may raise, and each interview is of a client with a new problem. The teams performed amazingly in dealing with the wide variety of issues the clients raised during their interviews."

Wilson said 12 teams competed in the contest, including Baylor. "Most of the schools were from Texas, but the University of Denver sent a team, as did the University of Utah and the University of Wyoming," she said.